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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28803351">The Two Millicents</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmeebee/pseuds/Emmeebee'>Emmeebee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Gen, One-Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:49:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,048</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28803351</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmeebee/pseuds/Emmeebee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays is lonely and mind-numbingly boring. But when Daphne’s classmates return, she realises her break wasn’t as uneventful as it seemed.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daphne Greengrass &amp; Tracey Davis</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Two Millicents</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Daphne added another white cross-stitch to her dove design and tied it off with a sigh. Glancing up, she looked around the empty library, searching for a distraction that she knew wouldn’t come. Most of the other students had gone home for the Christmas holidays, leaving the castle deserted and cold.</p>
<p>She would have spent the break with her family, but her little sister had the pox, so she had to stay at school. Looking for something to fill in her time, she’d decided to dust off her unfinished tapestries. Usually, the methodical act of weaving the needle in and out of the holes quieted her mind, ridding it of any outside noise. But she didn’t need quieting when her whole world was hushed, and the slow pace just made her feel like a snail inching along a road to nowhere.</p>
<p>The front door creaked open, and Millicent walked in. They weren’t close; the other girl was too brusque and rude for Daphne’s liking, and Daphne knew she was too mild-tempered for Millicent’s. But beggars couldn’t be choosers.</p>
<p>‘Millicent!’ she whisper-yelled, more out of habit than necessity. Since she was the only student in the library, Madam Pince didn’t mind if she made noise.</p>
<p>Millicent’s eyes lit up when she saw Daphne, and she smiled, looking uncharacteristically genuine. Apparently, Madam Pince wasn’t the only person who was loosening up due to the holidays. Millicent hurried over and slumped into the seat opposite Daphne.</p>
<p>‘I thought you were going home for Christmas,’ Daphne said, never more relieved to be wrong.</p>
<p>‘I’m leaving tonight. My parents are both working, so they asked me to stay an extra day. They’ll Apparate to Hogsmeade once they’re done and take me from there.’</p>
<p>Daphne frowned. ‘But couldn’t you have caught the train? They would’ve finished by the time you got to the station, surely.’</p>
<p>‘Don’t ask me to explain what my parents think.’</p>
<p>More likely, Millicent or her parents didn’t want her catching the train for some other reason that she didn’t want to share. Deciding that it really didn’t affect her, Daphne threaded blue cotton through the needle for the sky. ‘Well, it’s nice having someone else I know around, even if it’s only for a few hours.’</p>
<p>‘Yeah. And without everyone else around, we have the chance to really talk.’</p>
<p>Daphne raised an eyebrow, intrigued. ‘Talk about what?’</p>
<p>‘What else?’ Millicent’s voice dropped. ‘The Chamber of Secrets<em>.</em> Who do you think this “heir” is?’</p>
<p>‘That’s the question, isn’t it?’ After the first attack, Daphne and Tracey had spent a whole weekend trying to work it out. They’d even made a list of everyone in the school and started crossing off names. But if it were that simple to catch the heir, the professors would have already done it. ‘It has to be one of the seventh years, doesn’t it? No one else would have the magical power or knowledge. But I wouldn’t have the first idea of <em>who</em>.’</p>
<p>They spent the next forty minutes or so rehashing Daphne and Tracey’s hypotheses and the few, albeit weak, conclusions they’d reached. Millicent made some surprisingly astute comments; the girl really was clever when she put her mind to something.</p>
<p>‘And that just leaves Willoughby,’ Daphne said, ‘but it can’t be him, either.’</p>
<p>‘Why not? He hates Mug—Mudbloods.’</p>
<p>‘Yes, and he’s a right prat. But he’s not very <em>smart</em>, is he? I heard he’s only taking three N.E.W.T. subjects because he bombed out on all his exams. If he were the heir, everyone would know by now.’</p>
<p>Millicent seemed to deflate, her shoulders sinking into her baggy robes. Her straight black hair was frizzy from the humidity; a few strands kinked at odd angles, making her appear rundown. For the first time, Daphne noticed faint shadows beneath her eyes.</p>
<p>‘You really wanted to be the one to catch the heir,’ Daphne noted. Of course; who didn’t? Some of her friends had laughed off the attack on Mrs Norris as a harmless prank, but since then, they’d all started to worry. Most of them didn’t <em>really </em>want their classmates to be attacked, no matter what their blood status was. Only the staunchest of blood purists still thought this monster business was a good thing.</p>
<p>‘Not to catch him,’ Millicent said. ‘To congratulate him.’</p>
<p>‘Well, I don’t think he’d care about a random second year’s congratulations,’ Daphne said bluntly and a little icily. She didn’t like Muggles, with their uncivilised society and penchant for witch hunts, and she knew it wasn’t safe to befriend Muggle-borns. Even if their parents accepted them, that didn’t mean the connection wasn’t a risk. But she couldn’t understand how anyone could celebrate their classmates being hurt.</p>
<p>‘No.’ Millicent’s eyes suddenly widened, and Daphne followed her gaze to see the large, ornate clock hanging above Madam Pince’s desk. She stood so fast that her chair toppled backwards and she had to catch it to stop it from falling. ‘Is that the time? I should go or I’ll be late.’</p>
<p>‘Oh, alright. I’ll see you after the holi—’ Before Daphne could finish her sentence, Millicent had run out the door, her frizzy hair trailing behind her. Daphne didn’t know how she could have thought it was black; it really was more of a brown colour in this light.</p>
<p>What a strange girl.</p>
<p>-x-</p>
<p>The holidays dragged on, painfully slow. Sick of Draco, Greg and Vince and their stuck-up posturing, Daphne spent as much time as she could out of the common room. After she finished cross-stitching and caught up on some reading, she explored the castle and its grounds, figuring that she might as well make use of the quiet to learn more about the place. On the final day of the break, she received word that Astoria had fully recovered, but it was too late to go home only to catch the train back the next morning.</p>
<p>The next evening, she stood by the gates to the school, bundled up in a beanie and scarf to fight off the lingering chill. Fluffy white snow stretched across the grounds and clung to the trees, and the wind whistled shrilly as it whipped her hair around.</p>
<p>But even as she lifted her robes so the damp hem didn’t brush along the ground, Daphne didn’t care about the cold. The carriages would be arriving from the village soon, and that could outweigh any discomfort.</p>
<p>At last, she heard the rumbling of wheels on snow and saw the flickering lights of the carriages driving up the path. When they slowed to a stop in front of her and the students disembarked, Daphne rushed forward and flung her arms around Tracey.</p>
<p>‘How were your holidays? You have to tell me everything. I’ve missed you so much.’</p>
<p>Tracey laughed as she hugged her back. ‘Stir-crazy much?’</p>
<p>‘You have <em>no idea</em>.’ Pulling back, Daphne watched all the other students mill about. ‘Oh, hello, Millicent. Nice break?’</p>
<p>Millicent grimaced at her and said nothing as she walked up the path alone, dawdling behind her friends. In the dim twilight, her hair looked pitch black again. Apparently, their tentative friendship was a thing of the past.</p>
<p>‘Don’t take it to heart,’ Tracey said, following her gaze. ‘She’s been like that with everyone. We think she’s sour because her father had to work over the holidays. She spent the whole trip home talking about how much she was looking forward to seeing him.’</p>
<p>Daphne nodded. That made sense — only it didn’t. ‘What do you mean, the whole trip home? She didn’t go home on the train.’</p>
<p>Tracey looked at her as though she were insane. ‘What do you mean? Of course she did.’</p>
<p>‘She came into the library after everyone else left, and we talked for ages about our theories about the Chamber of Secrets and the heir of Slytherin. She said her parents were going to pick her up from Hogsmeade later.’ As Daphne talked, a sinking feeling settled into her stomach. ‘I’m sure of it.’</p>
<p>Her imagination had a habit of running wild, but surely that conversation hadn’t just happened in her head. If it had, she would have daydreamed about talking to Tracey, her best friend, or Theo, who she had a crush on. Why would she imagine talking to <em>Millicent</em>?</p>
<p>‘Well, I’m sure she was on the train, too.’ Tracey’s face paled. ‘Either she was in two places at once... or your Millicent was fake. But <em>why</em>?’</p>
<p>Ignoring Tracey, Daphne sprinted up the path, shouting back apologies as she bumped into her classmates in her haste. Millicent was walking so slowly that it didn’t take long to catch up to her. Grabbing her arm, Daphne ignored the dark look on her face and asked, ‘Did we talk in the library a few weeks ago after the Hogwarts Express left?’</p>
<p>‘No!’ Millicent yanked her arm out of Daphne’s grip. ‘Are you insane? Leave me alone.’</p>
<p>‘Sorry. It must have...’ Daphne trailed off, not knowing what she could say to explain herself. Anything she said would sound weird.</p>
<p>Daphne watched Millicent walk away, glancing over her shoulder at regular intervals as if worried that Daphne would accost her again. When Tracey caught up to her, Daphne said, ‘I think we need to talk to Professor Snape.’</p>
<p>Tracey nodded. ‘We’ll have to wait until after dinner.’</p>
<p>-x-</p>
<p>‘And then Millicent said it wasn’t her, so we went to Professor Snape, then he brought us here,’ Daphne finished, pressing her hands together in her lap to keep from fidgeting. She glanced over at Tracey, who smiled reassuringly and gave her a thumbs-up under the table.</p>
<p>But Professor Dumbledore merely peered at her over the top of his half-moon spectacles as he leant forward, his hands resting on his large, claw-footed desk. Despite all the whirring, puffing instruments lining the circular office, he looked as serious as she’d ever seen him.</p>
<p>Did he believe her? Would he work out who the imposter was? Did he already have a suspect?</p>
<p>Finally, he said, ‘You did the right thing by bringing this to our attention, Miss Greengrass. If someone is impersonating students, that is serious indeed, especially under the current circumstances. Do you remember anything else about the conversation? Anything that she didn’t know that she ought to have, or that she did know that she shouldn’t?’</p>
<p>‘No, although… she kept asking me questions about my housemates, like whether I thought Draco or Graham or Cecily were prejudiced or violent enough to kill someone. I assumed she just wanted to hear a different opinion, but…’</p>
<p>‘But it may imply that our imposter isn’t a Slytherin.’</p>
<p>Off to the side of the room, Professor Snape shifted, his robes rustling. ‘As you may recall, Headmaster, a student broke into my private potion stores a month before the incident and stole boomslang skin.’</p>
<p>‘Yes, Polyjuice Potion would match our timeline.’ To Daphne and Tracey, he added, ‘Polyjuice Potion allows the drinker to assume another person’s appearance. It takes one month to brew and each dose lasts for an hour, which would explain why your Millicent left so quickly.’</p>
<p>‘I read about it in a novel once,’ Tracey said. ‘Isn’t it illegal?’</p>
<p>‘It is illegal to brew or use it outside of several specific circumstances,’ Professor Snape replied. ‘The penalty is a fine or, depending on the intended usage, a year in Azkaban.’</p>
<p>‘If it takes a month to brew, they had to be fairly determined,’ Daphne said. ‘But why, sir? If the rumours about the Chamber of Secrets are true, why would someone go to the effort of stealing boomslang skin and brewing an illegal potion… only to talk to <em>me</em>?’</p>
<p>‘Now you have struck at the heart of the issue, Miss Greengrass,’ Professor Dumbledore said. ‘When we can answer that, I daresay everything else will fall into place as well.’</p>
<p>‘You already know my suspicions about the identity of the thief.’ Professor Snape’s voice was as low and biting as a striking snake. ‘Perhaps, if you had investigated it at the time, this could have been avoided. Headmaster, I must insist that we — ’</p>
<p>‘While usually I welcome criticism, now is not the time, Severus,’ Professor Dumbledore replied sharply. As he turned back to Daphne, his clear blue eyes caught the light and looked paler than usual.</p>
<p>Daphne straightened in her chair. ‘What does it look like when the potion runs out? Does the drinker’s appearance go back to normal immediately, or does it take time?’</p>
<p>‘How long it takes depends on the quality of the potion, but it is gradual. Often, one or two features will change back first, followed by the rest.’ Professor Dumbledore regarded her with interest. ‘Why? Did you see something?’</p>
<p>‘Maybe. Millicent has black hair, and it’s really straight and thin. But when she left that day, it looked frizzier and a touch lighter, to the point that I thought it was brown instead of black. At the time, I put it down to the lighting, but…’</p>
<p>‘But perhaps it was something more.’ Professor Dumbledore leant back in his chair and sighed. ‘You have given me much to consider, but alas, it is getting late, and both of you have lessons tomorrow. As hard as it may seem, put the matter out of your mind for the night, and please do not speak about this with anyone outside the four of us. At this stage, it would be advantageous for us if the imposter does not know I am aware of their actions.’</p>
<p>Once Daphne and Tracey had given him their word, he wished them goodnight and Professor Snape escorted them back to the dungeons. They were silent throughout the trip except for the patter of their shoes on the stone floor.</p>
<p>The moment Daphne and Tracey stepped into the common room, however, they were hit by a wall of sound. There were students everywhere — chatting on the couches, staring out the window at fish swimming through the murky depths of the Great Lake, and playing euchre on the floor by the fire.</p>
<p>Just this morning, Daphne would have been thrilled at the hustle and bustle, but now, she wanted quiet and the chance to think things through.</p>
<p>Grabbing her arm, Tracey pulled her into an empty corner and whispered, ‘I was thinking… It could’ve been the heir, couldn’t it? Maybe he heard that we were trying to work out who he is and got spooked. He could’ve used the potion to see if we knew.’</p>
<p>A chill ran down Daphne’s neck. Everyone assumed that the heir only wanted to hurt Muggle-borns and blood traitors, but where had that idea come from? The message he painted on the wall in blood didn’t say that; it said “enemies of the heir”. Draco was the one who first mentioned Muggle-borns.</p>
<p>Did trying to find out the heir’s identity make her his enemy? Was he coming after her now as well?</p>
<p>‘Then I hope we were wrong,’ Daphne said, which was something she’d never wished for before in her life. If they were off-base, the heir would have no reason to come after her.</p>
<p>Still, she couldn’t keep from glancing over at Willoughby. He was laughing heartily on a couch with his friends, his cheeks flushed and eyes ablaze. His hair was blond, not dark brown, but maybe the fake Millicent’s hair hadn’t finished lightening when she fled the library.</p>
<p>Was he just another student, carefree and happy to be reunited with his friends? Or was he an attempted murderer biding his time?</p>
<p>Tracey lowered her voice. ‘Should we… you know, see if we can find out anything else? We could ask the portraits near the library if they saw anyone that day. If they were awake in their frames, then there would be a point where one portrait saw Millicent and the next one saw someone else.’</p>
<p>Daphne hesitated. She and Tracey both loved crime novels, which was one of the reasons they’d made a list of suspects in the first place. Given how long many decades the mystery had gone unsolved, they’d known that cracking it was unlikely. But that hadn’t stopped them fancying themselves amateur detectives.</p>
<p>If it <em>was </em>Willoughby, they were so close…</p>
<p>But wasn’t that how they got targeted in the first place? They tried to solve one problem and found themselves stuck in the centre of another. Talking to the portraits would only entangle them further. Assuming they hadn’t reached the point of no return yet, Daphne didn’t want to risk stumbling over it by accident.</p>
<p>Besides, Professor Dumbledore had said not to worry about it. At least half of her housemates would say not to trust him, claiming he only cared about Gryffindors. But while Daphne knew he wouldn’t award <em>her </em>game-changing last-minute House points, even if she did manage to solve the mystery, she also knew he wouldn’t knowingly endanger her. His job was to protect all the students, not just his favourites.</p>
<p>Despite his eccentricities, he was the most revered wizard of the age, the one person He Who Must Not Be Named had feared. If anyone could combat this threat, it was him, not two twelve-year-olds who were still learning basic duelling spells.</p>
<p>Especially since Professor Snape would be helping him. He was one of the most intelligent and magically powerful professors at Hogwarts, and he had a suspect already. As the Head of Slytherin, he also had a vested interest in keeping her safe.</p>
<p>They could handle this far better than she and Tracey could.</p>
<p>Logic won out. ‘I don’t think so. The heir has to be magically powerful, doesn’t he? Even if we <em>do </em>find him, we’ll be out of our depth. I think we need to leave this one for the adults.’</p>
<p>‘Alright.’ Tracey sighed, sounding vaguely disappointed, but then she wasn’t the one who had a near-death experience without even realising it. If the heir had targeted her, she’d be just as cautious as Daphne. ‘We should walk around in groups, though, just to be safe.’</p>
<p>‘That’s probably wise.’ Daphne glanced once more at Willoughby, her stomach quivering with lingering unease. Then, she turned to the group playing cards by the fire. ‘Come on. It looks like the game’s almost over; let’s join in for the next round.’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I just finished rereading the series, and it struck me that if Hermione succeeded in Polyjuicing into Millicent in second year, it would’ve made things harder, not easier. So few people stay at Hogwarts for the holidays that the Slytherins were sure to notice Millicent catching the train home, then still being at school afterwards, then just… not being around again until after everyone returns.</p>
<p>Thank you to Aminta.Defender and CC-Saito for critiquing this!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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